
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 5, 1992                   TAG: 9203050073
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: GEORGE KEGLEY BUSINESS EDITOR
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

GOOD NEWS FOR NORTON

While AT&T plans to eliminate up to 6,000 operators' jobs across the nation, the phone company said Wednesday its Norton relay center is expanding and the work force there could triple to 300 in three years.

The year-old Norton center in Wise County has operators who relay typed messages from deaf persons to other callers. The center's load has grown so much that its building is expanding by 50 percent, according to Lowell Connor, an AT&T spokesman.

The growth to 300 depends on Norton's selection as a regional center, possibly to handle calls from deaf customers in West Virginia, he said. New federal law governing facilities and services for the disabled requires that each state have a relay center or a contract for a center to handle calls from deaf or hearing-disabled persons.

Virginia had one of the first of the 20 AT&T relay centers now in operation, Connor said. In this specialized center, the operators must transmit messages literally and they cannot interpret the information. Messages are confidential.

The first call was from a deaf woman who was seeking a plumber; the operator helped her find one. Deaf customers use an 800 number to call the center and get a discount of about 60 percent or more if a long-distance call is required, Connor said.

AT&T, which late Tuesday announced plans to trim its operator force by one-third in two years, said Wednesday that none of its Virginia facilities will be affected by the move to voice-recognition devices. Connor said 95 percent of all AT&T calls are made without an operator.

In those situations, he said, it is "more cost-effective to the customer" to use the device.

In Roanoke, Melvin King, vice president of Communication Workers Local 2204, said he thinks customers will be adversely affected by the change. It doesn't speak well of AT&T to announce the action shortly before contract renewal talks begin, he said.

Well over 100 technical jobs in the Roanoke area have been eliminated by AT&T since divestiture of the Bell systems in 1984, King said.

Morton Bahr, CWA president, said AT&T customers "have a right to expect quality service, but it takes people to provide that service."

The new voice-recognition device will bring an operator on the line when the caller says the word "operator," Connor said.

by CNB